Opinion: How our drug and gun habits tie in with the 43 missing Mexican students

By now, unfortunately, we’ve become inured to reports of violence among Mexico’s brutal drug gangs, from the murderous border town of Nuevo Laredo to the gruesome killing zones of Guerrero state, which includes Acapulco. But the reports over the past few weeks about the disappearance of 43 young Mexicans studying to become teachers brings the long-running crisis into painfully sharp relief.

The students disappeared in late September after a violent protest against government policies in Iguala, Guerrero. City police attacked the mostly student protesters, killing six and injuring more than two dozen. But in the aftermath, nearly 60 protesters were unaccounted for. About 15 were later found hiding in their homes but the rest, 43, vanished, and witnesses said some were led away by police. A few days later, 22 police officers were arrested in connection with the violence, but the 43 students remained missing.

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FOR THE RECORD

An earlier version of this post said Guerrero state is near Acapulco; it includes that city.

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The governor of Guerrero said recently that local police in his state had been infiltrated by the Guerrero Unidos drug gang, an accusation that seemed affirmed when the local mayor ran off as the investigation unfolded. A mayor and several police officers in another Guerrero city were arrested by the federal police over alleged links to the drug cartel. A leader of the cartel killed himself as soldiers closed in.

So what of the missing college students? Searchers have found six mass graves but so far none of the bodies has been identified as any of the missing students. Think about that. Six mass graves of the slaughtered, and they still haven’t found the right mass grave.

That’s an unconscionable level of violence, one for which the United States bears some responsibility even though the killings happened more than 1,000 miles south of the border. Why? According to recent news reports, a key outlet for the Guerrero Unidos gang’s drug trafficking is Chicago. And as a study last year through the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute found, a large number of the guns with which Mexico’s drug wars are being waged were trafficked in from the U.S.

So it’s not just unaccompanied minors who are crossing the irrecoverably porous U.S.-Mexico border. We have an inextricable black-market link with the Mexican drug gangs. And the longer we avoid dealing with that dark relationship – we could start with a serious reassessment of our counter-productive drug and gun laws – the more bodies will pile up, both in Mexico, and in U.S. homes and streets.

Follow Scott Martelle on Twitter @smartelle.